A community of possibilities: ten years of the Canon Young People Programme

How many communities are you a part of? It’s not a trick question, but your answer might surprise you. It’s probably a few, right? And while we’re sure that each is very different, they will no doubt have some things in common. You see, in a world that can feel like it’s moving at a million miles an hour, our communities can be a grounding reminder of what matters most: people and the way we show up for each other. They give us a sense of belonging, keep us safe and teach us so much. For all these reasons, we are incredibly proud of our Canon community, and the way we connect with each other has been the blueprint for our Canon Young People Programme (CYPP).

Launched back in 2015, CYPP was designed to meet children and young adults where they are, in their own communities, and help them to explore their concerns, thoughts and feelings about a changing world in the visual space. We wanted to teach them a new language to express their already exceptionally creative ideas and share the parts of their lives for which words just aren’t enough. And by using the newly launched United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a jumping-off point, we had the perfect place to begin.

It was all done with incredible care. We are privileged to have teams across 36 countries in EMEA – local people who have close ties to their communities – and over the past ten years they have forged genuine and valuable relationships with grassroots initiatives, community groups, non-profits and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations). They have collectively brought over 10,000 young people into classrooms to learn the fundamentals of photography and visual storytelling from experts – including many Canon Ambassadors – even when actual classrooms were hard to come by.

For example, our team in Estonia and their partners at KINOCourse taught young Ukrainian refugees on a converted passenger ferry. Another navigated daily checkpoint interrogations to teach in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Lens on Life has taken CYPP to the conflict regions of Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Cameroon. But equally, our workshops can be found on housing estates, in youth centres, schools, colleges and even a national park or two.

It was clear to us from the very beginning that this was never going to be ‘one size fits all’. But being on the ground with students and partners right from the very start meant that we’ve been able to have equity baked in. By learning what the young people in each region needed from the beginning – based on their backgrounds, challenges and levels of education – we could design every workshop, lesson plan and timetable to suit their circumstances, then match them with the perfect teachers and equipment. 

This couldn’t have been more apparent than in the partnership between Canon South Africa and Wild Shots Outreach, which began in 2017. An award-winning NGO, they use photography to introduce wildlife to young people who, despite having national parks and game reserves on their doorsteps, have never set foot in them. They’ve subsequently taken the CYPP to Botswana, Kenya and Namibia, inspiring over 1700 new conservationists from disadvantaged areas. Many have gone on to use their creativity for good, telling stories of the natural world to encourage others to view their animal neighbours differently.

After ten years of the programme, we’ve found that the word ‘partnership’ has truly taken on a deeper meaning and there is real shared purpose, trust and connection between us and the organisations we work with. We chose each other because there were, and continue to be, common values and sense of direction. We want the same things, whether that’s elevating the skills of youngsters in Italy, supporting teens in Brussels to bring about real change in their city, helping young refugees to the Netherlands to learn Dutch or enabling lone child migrants in Barcelona to give a glimpse into their world through photography.

We have met and worked with so many incredible young people and, in many cases, been privileged enough to follow their progress and watch them grow into changemaking adults. Over this past decade, we have discovered that no matter how fast the world changes, one thing is a constant: when you give young people agency, support them in their ambitions and help them to tell their stories, they can do great things.

And this, in essence, is just what the Canon Young People Programme is. It’s communities coming together and our commitment to future generations of young people for whom there are barriers – not of their own making – to a creative education. Even as you read this, have no doubt that our teams across EMEA are writing lesson plans, organising locations, transporting equipment, spending hours in classrooms, encouraging students and helping to shape exhibitions that these young people can be proud of.

It is our way of not only helping their voices to be heard, but to show them that they are important. That their worlds matter. That they matter. And when you do this for 10,000 young people… well, that’s a lot of powerful images and stories that needed to be told. We know that there are so many still to come. Our shared CYPP community will continue to grow and grow.

Learn more about the Canon Young People Programme.